Are we too overwhelmed by all things new, or are we too deep into researching music from fifty or sixty years ago? It could be, and it seems it takes us some time to reconsider decades that are closer to our time. To that effect, it seems the 1990s are currently in the doghouse.
Sure, practically everybody remembers or has learned (if they are a younger generation) about Nirvana, R.E.M., Radiohead (still around), Massive Attack, Public Enemy, Wu-Tang Clan… The list can go on for a while, and it turns out that the nineties were not so bad as they might seem to some.
After all, it seem that the creativity exploded in all genres, with new ones cropping up by the day, and with the emerging new forms of presenting and listening to music, it became quite easy to miss (or forget for that matter), quite a number of brilliant albums that cropped up throughout the decade.
24 brilliant albums from the 1990s that have been overlooked
Here is a not-so-short list of such albums that might have been missed, misjudged, or simply forgotten that just beg to be in everybody’s record collection, in any shape or form.
Sonic Youth - Goo (1990)
The kings of guitar experimentation turn into a new decade by trying to redefine the combination of melody and dissonance and completely succeed. A great album through and through, the tribute to one Karen Carpenter included. An album that many undeservedly forgot.
My Bloody Valentine - Loveless (1991)
They say that Kevin Shields and Co. took so much sweet time (and money) to produce this album that it was the reason Creation Records went bust. That may be the case, but both the time and money it took to come up with this, one of the best albums of all time, were worth it. Whoever missed this one should grab it as soon as possible.
Teenage Fanclub - Bandwagonesque (1991)
Is there such a thing as a power pop and grunge combination (give or take a few other things)? These Scottish guys answer that question with their second album, which many forgot, possibly because they never missed with their albums after that either.
Talk Talk - Laughing Stock (1991)
When this album initially came out, it was only a rare critic that gave it attention, as the music was so quiet and so intense at the same time. These days, so many current artists list it among their faves and inspiration, without it getting the wider attention it deserves.
Jonathan Richman - I, Jonathan (1992)
Always underrated and underestimated due to his constant tongue-in-cheek lyrics, Richman never really cared and kept on producing lo-fi goodies for the enamored few. Here he comes back to the band format and goes to every place at once, taking all the right steps.
Mazzy Star - So Tonight That I Might See (1993)
College radio did wonders for so many not-so-well-known acts in the 1990s, and Mazzy Star was one of them. This band’s second album is where Dave Roback and Hope Sandoval's combination works the best, but these days, many have forgotten how good this album still sounds.
Guided by Voices - Bee Thousand (1994)
By this album, Robert Pollard and his crew had so many lo-fi gems out that many other artists don’t produce in their entire careers. But here, GBV and more fi to than lo, make their knack for great guitar-driven melodies and Pollard's fancy English teacher lyrics that it grabbed the attention of the critics, larger audiences not that much (yet).
Gillian Welch - Revival (1996)
The moment this album opens, you know Welch didn’t have to add the word folk in front of the Revival title here. But what makes this album sound so great is the fact that even today, you are not able to put a certain finger on when it was recorded - back in the fifties or yesterday.
Stereolab - Emperor Tomato Ketchup (1996)
How can you define experimental pop, as those two terms usually do not mix well? A wrong premise if you ask these gals and guys who, by this, their fourth album, have almost perfected their idea of throwing in everything and see what sticks, as long as there is a catchy melody somewhere in there. And here it all stuck.
DJ Shadow - Endtroducing... (1996)
In 1996, trip-hop was a musical term of the day, and this, then still a very young California guy, and this album are cited as one of the primary movers of the genre. Some thirty years on, this album sounds fresh and new as it did then.
Spiritualized - Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space (1997)
Very often, inventive album (in this case, CD) packaging doesn’t bring that much good music, but this reference to various (mind enhancement) pills not only paints the exact picture of what music is contained within but present the perfect moment of what psych rock sounded in the nineties (and on).
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - F♯ A♯ ∞ (1997)
When did prog rock actually turn into post-rock? Many critics and fans point out this Canadian collective and their first album, which sounds quite ominous and thrilling at the same time, even to this day.
Yo La Tengo - I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One (1997)
A decade into their career, that vast musical knowledge (and record collection) that Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley as the band’s partner axis had has fully sunk into their music that here thy were able to go from pure melody to pure cacophony, sometime within a single song (or composition) with nothing lost and a lot gained.
Belle and Sebastian - If You’re Feeling Sinister (1997)
At the time grunge and Britpop were losing steam, focus on great (often sensitive) melody and even more detailed and sensitive lyrics was suddenly coming back in focus, and this Scottish collective was greatly responsible for it with their (officially) second album, that remains as one of the key ones in their career.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - The Boatman's Call (1997)
By this album, Cave was an established artist, but not many of his fans were too enamored by his louder (and often sinister) side, so this gentler side of Cave didn’t leave much impression on them at the time. Yet as years (and decades) passed, this album turned out to be one of the pivotal ones in his career.
Lucinda Williams - Car Wheels on a Gravel Road (1998)
If you want to pinpoint what a great country rock album of the nineties sounds like that picking up this album would be a no-brainer. Actually, picking out this album as one of the best of country rock of any decade would be a no-brainer, too.
Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (1998)
The Elephant 6 collective, which included a plethora of artists and bands, produced so many albums that simply went unnoticed by wider audiences, except the critical nod and cult fandom this Jeff Mangum opus got for all the right reasons, pointing to other yet undiscovered Elephant 6 gems lying around.
Boards of Canada - Music Has the Right to Children (1998)
By the time Boards of Canada came up with this album, all aspects of electronic music were seemingly entering a sort of rut. BoC shook things up with it, bringing in all strains of electronic stuff together and re-shuffling them in a completely new way.
Silver Jews - American Water (1998)
Late David Berman can easily be labeled as one of the true rock poets, and here, on his third album as Silver Jews, reunited with Stephen Malkmus, he shows why that is the case, coming up with some of his strongest material.
Sparklehorse - Good Morning Spider (1998)
With this album, late Mark Linkous was able to break the decades-long singer-songwriter dogma that it has to be just voice and an acoustic instrument. Going all over the place musically, both the music and lyrics stay firmly focused, with some incredible results.
Smog - Knock Knock (1999)
By this, his seventh album under the Smog moniker, many considered Bill Callahan a perennial pessimist. Here he proves them wrong, at least partially, but that optimistic note produced some of the best songs Callahan came up with up to that moment.
Jim O’Rourke - Eureka (1999)
By this time, both critics and (not such a big) O’Rourke fan circle were expecting something different (as usual) from him, but not this different, as this constant experimentalist goes pop and shows other ‘ordinary’ pop artists how pop should really be done.
The Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs (1999)
Stephen Merritt was another literature graduate gone pop who was able to juggle so many monikers and projects to satisfy his need to cover as much musical ground as possible. On this triple album, which some considered too expansive to tackle, he brings it all together, without a single flinch
Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy - I See Darkness (1999)
You just don’t end up with a song (and backing vocals) on one of Johnny Cash's late-career albums for no valid reason, and it turned out to be the title song from this Will Oldham album. Throughout his career and quite a few monikers, Oldham was able to come up with some delightful and at the same time quirky albums, and this one still ranks as one of his best.